Pol Position was once riding in the car listening to an interview with a longtime radio baseball announcer, who was complaining of a strange phenomenon in the world of baseball advertising and the indignity of being forced to work silly references to the sport of baseball into every ad, such as "you'll really get a steal at Harry's Honda" or "you'll really knock one out of the park at Billy Bob's All-You-Can-Eat Buffet and Strip Club."

Well, it's not just in advertising where that rule applies; it also applies to the world of politics.

We recently received two press releases that awkwardly combined the world of politics with language of athletics.

The first came from Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, who according to the first line of her press release claimed she "hit a home run this morning along with a slam dunk." At first we were totally confused, as we weren't exactly sure what sport she was playing, perhaps base-ketball?

But we read on, and discovered that actually she allocated some money to buy equipment for a basketball and baseball program in western Queens, hence the ability to both hit a homerun and dunk a basketball at the same time.

The second came from Comptroller William Thompson, who released an audit that "found the city is striking out by letting the New York Mets slide on $2.5 million the team owes from their rental agreement for Shea Stadium."

We don't know if the use of the word "slide" was intentional or not, but it was very subtle if it was. We would have preferred that the city let the New York Mets "balk" on the money they owe, but we tend to go for the blatantly obvious.

However, our favorite is Thompson's quote, which cleverly incorporates the nickname of the Mets and yet another baseball reference.

"The Mets have done an Amazin' job at skirting their commitment to the city. While we are faced with widening budget gaps and cuts to essential services, the city should be trying to collect every penny we are owed, Instead, City Hall is putting on a minor league performance."

Minor league performance? So, in other words, kind of like the Mets themselves these days.